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Bad Blood
DM * Kuul Players * Leonardo ir'Brenith, human barbarian * Jawbreaker, warforged cleric * Stefan ir'Lain, human wizard * Mik'hael Builder, human paladin Notable NPCs * Charity Builder, Mik'hael's wife * Mary Builder, Mik'hael's daughter and bearer of a powerful aberrant mark * Garash d'Tarkanan, Mary's boyfriend and a fellow aberrant mark * Binde d'Tarkanan, Mentor for the next generation of aberrant marks * Flamebearer Mazin Tana, the senior priest at Coldflame Keep * Orrin ir'Kendag, and old school rival of Stefan ir'Lain Introduction Jawbreaker, Mollie and Stefan are all in the Lounge, doing various tasks as Leo and Raynor are behind the bar, the manservant trying (and failing) to teach Leo the difference between scrambled and sunny-side up eggs. In middle of the sedate atmosphere, the door flies open and a woman in her late forties, dressed in a simple spun dress made out of a faded royal blue cotton rushes in. Dirty blond hair flying across her face, her eyes are darting around, frantic. “Mik’hael? Have you seen Mik’hael? I know that he came in here earlier, something about paperwork.” The woman takes a deep breath, composing herself. “I am sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Charity Builder. I’m Mik’hael’s wife. May the light of the Flame guide you.” Expedition Summary Leo, Jawbreaker and Stefan are the lounge with Mollie, another Wayfinder, relaxing, when Charity Builder, Mik'hael's wife, bursts through the door, looking for her daughter. She apparently argued with her several hours ago, but then there was a flash of pink, and Charity woke up less than half an hour ago, with Mary, their daughter, gone. ''The group questions Mollie, who is coincidentally one of Mary's friends, about her, and she confesses that Mary hasn't been hanging out with her normal crew, but with this half-orc named Garash. The Wayfinders track down Mik’hael working in one of the offices above the Foundation. They tell him the situation, and he rushes down to comfort his wife. Charity also reveals that Mary took her emergency bag of supplies with her. Leo’s manservant Raynor offers to take Charity home with him, keep her safe and occupied for the night, if nothing else. Before Mollie leaves for the lightning rail, she suggests heading to LeVay’s, a fashion shop that they liked to frequent. The team decides to stop by Mik’hael’s home and search it for clues before heading to the store. The Wayfinders do not find any clues in the house except for about a week’s worth of preserved food that had gone missing before Jawbreaker ignores common curtesy and tosses Mary’s room, finding a valuable clue – a Khyber dragonshard wrapped in silver wire as the base for a silver bracelet – a fancy gift, and all the more unusual for the dragonshard. Mik’hael doesn’t recognize it, and Stefan realises what it is, noting the value. Seeing nothing else of value, the team heads next door to Coldflame Keep to ask Flamebearer Mazin Tana a few questions. He warmly greets Mik’hael and surprisingly Leo, who had attended service with Reva a couple of times. Mary had missed a scheduled talk with Tana a couple of days earlier, but he didn’t seem overly concerned. Two of her friends were having relationship issues, apparently, and it was taking its toll on the poor girl. Mazin confirmed that Mary had spoken of running away in the past few months, but he had not believed her serious. As they left, he promised magical help the following day if they still had not found her. It’s a quick skycab ride to LeVay’s, in the surprisingly upscale Seventh Tower shopping district, though it is located towards the edge. They arrive and find that Mollie and Mary’s friend Hiller is working. Hiller is anxious when they tell him of Mary’s disappearance, that he had told her that Garash was Bad News. At the mention of Garash’s name, Jawbreaker spies a gnome heading to the back room. He casts ''command, trying to get the gnome to stop, but he shakes it off. People start panicking, seeing the giant warforged cast a spell in the middle of a busy store. Leo, Stefan and Jawbreaker pursue the gnome, but in the back room, there’s three choices – the door to the alley, and a set of stairs going up and down. Stefan hops out the door, releasing Ruby and telling her to help him search while Jawbreaker goes down the stairs and Leo heads up. Meanwhile, Mik’hael casts calm emotions'' to quell the crowd before following his allies. Catching only the sight of their heels, he'' calls after them to meet back at LaVay’s afterwards. Stefan runs out into the back alley, seeing a gnome disappear into a back alley. Slamming his head on a low wall, he manages to catch the gnome, only to have him shatter like a mirror. Leo runs upstairs, and bribes a trio of teenage girls to help flush out the gnome. When he goes to grab the gnome, however, he also shatters. Stefan staggers back into the store, Leo walking down the stairs and they both confirm that their gnomes shattered into glass. Hiller mentions that that gnome looked a lot like one of the kids who floated with Garash. They realise that the gnome must have gone into the basement, so they run after Jawbreaker. Mik’hael pleads with Hiller for any more information, and the shifter writes a single name on a sheet of paper before disappearing upstairs, intent on getting back to work. In the basement, Leo and Stefan find Jawbreaker staring furiously down at a pile of glass, and they realise that the gnome must have found another way out. Mik’hael reads the name as the other emerge upstairs, and curses uncharacteristically as he motions that they need to leave. As they head towards another skycab, Mik’hael reveals that Hiller had written the name Hakeshar on the paper, the pseudonym of a notorious criminal in the Lower City, one believed responsible for a number of high value assassinations in the past few years. Mik’hael believes that this is serious enough to warrant a visit to the Watch, so he takes them to see his friend Captain Angel, who Leo and Jawbreaker are familiar with thanks to the events of Going Rogue. Angel agrees to see them, and listens to their story. With a grim look on his face, he unlocks a drawer in his desk and reveals sketches of three murdered people, nearly cut in half in a single stroke. He directs them to talk to a Lieutenant Taylor in the Talain Garrison, home of the elite Red Cloaks unit. She’s the woman on the case for the Hakeshar murders. A quick flight down to Talain Garrison and they’re quickly directed to Taylor’s office. She's an attractive woman in her early thirties, with black hair and piercing green eyes. Her heritage shows through the coarseness ofher hair, tufts of dark hair off of pointed ears, and leonine facial features. As soon as they tell her that Angel sent them with the name Hakeshar, she invites them to sit and tell her what they know. When they reveal themselves to be Wayfinders, she smiles and asks them to pass a letter onto another local member. Quickly scrawling one, she hands it to Leo to deliver. She then tells them what she knows. Hakeshar is linked with a criminal organization known as House Tarkanan, a group of highly trained ex-military aberrant marked individuals. They only look to recruit their own. Leading Mik’hael to realise that Mary has likely manifested an aberrant mark. Charity has the mark of Making, but he was an orphan. She doesn’t know where Hakeshar is, but she does know somebody who might. A representative of the Daask, a troll known as Drag who tends to hang out at the bar Shamukaar in the Cogs. As they take yet another skycab down to the Lower City, Leo reveals that the letter was addressed to Ketaal of all people. They find Drag in the bar, and Mik’hael is quietly respectful as the other Wayfinders let him take the lead. Mik’hael agrees to owe Drag a favor in exchange for information. Drag agrees and lets them know that Garash and his friends hang out in Shamukaar about once a week, but they frequent a little bar over near Malleon’s Gate far more frequently. Mik’hael wants more information, but Drag feels as if he has filled his end of the bargain. Leo offers one secure message drop, with the understanding that nothing hurt the messenger. Drag agrees, and lets them know that Garash usually hangs out with a middle-aged human woman and a little gnome. Curiously, as they leave the bar, their skycab is missing. They shrug it off and walk to Malleon’s Gate. When they arrive at the periphery, Jawbreaker is stopped by a spooky old woman who calls out to him, calling him a Child of the Progenitor. She plucks his siberys shard, his holy symbol, out of midair, making it appear in her hands. With a pass of her hand, she turns the shard into a Khyber dragonshard, as purple-blue light infects Jawbreaker’s extremities, replacing the normal blue-gold. Stefan tries to blow her away as Jawbreaker tries to Turn her, but she laughs in the face of both abilites. She declares him a Child of Khyber, and sends his new dragonshard floating at Jawbreaker. He smashes it out of the sky, turning it to powder, and the old woman advances on him, seemingly intent on touching him. He passes his maul through her, but the robe collapses, empty, though her insane laughter lingers on the wind. Jawbreaker nudges aside the robes to find his holy symbol nestled in amongst them, though now it has a sliver of a khybershard in the heart of it. He brutally smashes the crystal once again, before turning and walking away without a second glance. Stefan notices a lump in Jawbreaker’s pouch, and the warforged opens it to find his siberys dragonshard with its heart of khyber, somehow fully reformed in his pouch. He simply places it back in his pouch and informs Leo that he needs to speak to Reva as soon as he can. They approach the bar, and Leo bargains with the minotaur guard Harduk of the Gloryseeker clan, who lets them know that the ones they seek are inside. The Wayfinders set up an ambush, and and soon as the trio leaves the bar, they rush in on them. Jawbreaker tries to command Garash and the older woman, while Mik’hael tries to hold person'' the gnome. The woman kneels'' in the face of Jawbreaker’s spell, but Garash resists it. The gnome also resists, and realises that they’ve been set up, and proceeds to try and flee before Garash stops him. He figures out how Mik’hael is and introduces himself as Mary’s boyfriend. Mik’hael is angry, and says that he can’t call himself her boyfriend if he kidnaps her. Garash retorts with the fact that Mary ran away because Charity recoiled upon seeing her aberrant mark. Garash offers to help the two meet on neutral ground, before the woman punches him in the shoulder and reminds him that Mary is one of them now, and demands that he take them out of there. He reluctantly reaches his hand out to grasp hers before Mik’hael entreats him to wait, to talk it out at Shamukaar. The woman, growing tired of talking, lets loose a blast of heat, which Garash saves Mik’hael from by tackling him to the ground. The gnome, Kennic, flees, 4 mirrored clones leaping out of his form and running in different directions. Jawbreaker drops a spell, slowing down only the real gnome, leaving Mik’hael moves to intercept, lashing out with the flat of his blade, laying the gnome out cold on the ground. The woman, Mavra’s eyes flash and a peal of thunder throws everyone back as she runs to the edge of the street and jumps. Without hesitation, Leo follows. They both activate their feather fall tokens at the same time, and she tries to run. Leo mercilessly crashes down immediately behind her and beheads her with a single swing, before turning and waving up at the other Wayfinders, 200 feet above him. He makes his way back up, and Garash suggests that they head for a bar that he knows, the Drunken Vine, about half an hour away. The bartender owes him a favor, so he won’t ask why they’re taking a bound gnome along for a ride. They arrive at the Drunken Vine, an Aundairan-style tavern. The bartender, Gustav, greets Garash warmly. The team sits down and has Stefan is (re)introduced to Orrin ir’Kendag, and old classmate of his that flunked out of Arcanix. They have a brief reunion in which Stefan resists the urge to light him on fire, but Orrin seems genuinely glad to see him, if condescending. Orrin leaves, and they Wayfinders hear the whole story about how Mary developed her mark three months ago and killed a man by commanding him to walk off of a bridge, revealing the suggestive power of her mark. Mary’s currently with his mentor, an elven woman named Binde. They grab the gnome and Garash and decide to head back to the Wayfinder Chapterhouse to leave the gnome in the care of some of the other Wayfinders before heading back to Coldflame Keep to rest for the night. They find Ketaal and Reva comparing arcane theory in the Lounge over drinks, and deposit the gnome with them. Jawbreaker confers with Ketaal and Reva about his changing dragonshard, but the pair can provide no definite answers. The Wayfinders split up – Reva and Ketaal head to the Talain Garrison to deposit Kennic, and the others head to Coldflame Keep to rest up for the next day’s activities. Jawbreaker confronts Flamebearer Mazin, but he has no more answers for him than the arcanists did the night before. When the others wake, Mazin communes with the Flame and answers Mik’hael’s question of “How can we get Mary back safely and willingly?” with “An attentive ear, followed by a valorous heart.” He blesses them, and they head off to the Lower City to meet Binde. Arriving there, Mary is delighted to see Garash, but less so to see her father. Binde tells him that Mary has agreed to stay with her while she learns to control her mark, but Hakeshar will find out about her sooner or later. The elf declares that she will not force Mary to do anything that she does not want to and when Stefan speaks up to Mary directly, she accidentally whammies him with her mark, making him ensure that Mary’s best interests are served. Garash warns the group against confronting the monstrous Hakeshar. They’re dead set on the confrontation, though, so Garash tells them the one person that he knows who might have an idea on where to find Hakeshar: Kennic, the gnome who they had turned over to Lieutenant Taylor of the Red Cloaks the night previous. They leave Garash with Binde and Mary and head out. They speak to Taylor, who they convince to let them question Kennic, but only after they agree to deliver a note to Ketaal’s ‘mysterious’ girlfriend, and give Taylor Ketaal’s unlisted address. She directs them down the hall, where the anti-magic cell block is located. Jawbreaker and Mik’hael step into the cell with a halfling guard, while Stefan stays outside. Leo asks to get into an anti-magic cellblock of his own, just to see if there’s enough of him left after all of the grafts needed to save his life. He steps imn and immediately falls to his knees, before collapsing. A second later, however, a feminine figure forms out of the mist seeping from his fallen body and entreats Stefan to remove Leo from the mist. The interrogation doesn’t go well. The halfling guard stops Jawbreaker from using his preferred methods of questioning, and the gnome finds Mik’hael too preachy. Neither one of them manages to convince him to flip on the apparently terrifying Hakeshar. Stefan, however, somehow manages to lie to Kennic enough to scare him into thinking that they would call a Red Cloak raid onto Binde’s cell. Kennic then confesses to them where to find Hakeshar – someplace deep in the Cogs call the Horn of Khyber. He then realises that they came straight here from Binde’s place, and makes them realise that she’s likely under attack as they speak. They grab a skycab as they leave the Garrison to get back to Binde’s place as fast as they can. When they’re nearly there, they get assaulted by a trio of Tarkanan goons who crash their skycab. They’re quickly dispatched, save a dwarf who runs off as they’re concentrating on a different foe. They race towards Binde’s place, where they find a pair of people fleeing. Stepping inside, they find Garash and Binde finishing off the last pair of assailants, him with his morningstar and her by literally draining the life out of the other. Mary insists that Garash and Binde head back to the Builder home, where they’ll be safe. Garash escorts the ladies, much to Jawbreaker and Mik’hael approval, before the team stops briefly to plan their assault. They head down to the Horn of Khyber, and are amazed to discover that it is a stalactite that’s hanging, suspended, above a large pool of lava. They manage to find an old dhakaani spellslate that casts spider climb upon the whole party and sneak into the stalactite-fortress from a window on the far side that Stefan’s familiar Ruby had seen flying in the cavern. Inside the room is a planning room of sorts. They decide to move up through the fortress, and encounter the three surviving goons from the Trakanan Ambush. A quick scuffle ensues, leaving only one alive. Jawbreaker debates killing him, but the others are rushing ahead of him towards the final confrontation, so he leaves him. The team arrives in a large, central room. They can spy dark khybershards studding the walls, though their addition appears to be far more recent that the rest of the structure. At the far end of the room, a stooped, hooded figure stands, turned away from the party. He greets Leo with familiarity, though Leo cannot place the voice. He turns and reveals himself to be Eivarel Elorrenthi Brenith (née Phiarlan), Leo’s uncle by marriage and very first music teacher. He claims that Phiarlan leadership knew that something was going to happen on the Day of Mourning, and that he discovered it and tried to warn the Breniths, but none of them would listen to him. He convinces Leo to play the song that he wrote for him on his 16th birthday, Moonlight on Lake Cyre'', one last time. Leo'' picks up and plays, his fog flaring, and suddenly the room is transformed into a grand estate, and Eivarel is at the far end. He explains that to survive, he had to make a bargain… and not every entity was as generous as Leo. A Glabrezu demon tears its way out of his skin, to the Wayfinder’s horror, and battle is joined. The ghostly fog woman before joins them in battle, wielding a greatsword made out light that lets loose peals of heavenly music with every hit as Leo continues playing, filling his companions with vitality. A short but vicious melee ensues, Jawbreaker and Stefan landing the killing blows. Hakeshar’s demonic form boils away into a thick purple smoke, which is absorbed into Jawbreaker, turning his form completely blue-black. A frail elven body drops to the ground, finally purged of the demonic creature that had possessed it for so long. Jawbreaker brings the elf before Leo, demanding that Leo decide on his fate. Leo decides to try and play the charred remains of an original song that were on his body when he was found in the Mournland. The song is masterfully played, and by the time that Leo plays the last note, Eivarel has already passed, a smile on his lips. As they leave, they realise that the unconscious Tarkanan that they had left behind has apparently fled. They also pick up a handsome sum of 3000 platinum dragons of Hakeshar Blood Money, most of which is allocated to Oldeo in New Cyre, but Leo insists that they each take a small amount in thanks. They eventually make their way back to Coldflame Keep, to check on the Tarkanans. They’re greeted at the door by a furious Charity, though she calms down quickly to her husband’s charms. They enter the house to find a harangued looking Garash sitting on a loveseat with Mary sprawled in his lap, and Binde and Raynor in the kitchen chatting amicably over tal. Leo and Jawbreaker spirit Garash away to talk while the Builder family has their own discussion. Mik’hael makes peace with everyone involved, and Binde and Garash mention that Binde had many boltholes that they can live out of, and it shouldn’t be an issue for the Tarkanans to come to Mik’haels home to continue Mary’s lessons. The weary Wayfinders head back to the Foundation chapterhouse for a stiff drink and a celebration of surviving the encounter. They find Aida there, reading a book while waiting for her Ketaal to come up from the Archives, where he’d been researching. She chats amicably with the Wayfinders as Stefan makes good on his promise and delivers the letter to Aida’s hand. Aida reads the letter, and finds out that Taylor will ‘take care’ of the skyskiff charges if Aida gets drinks with her. Epilogue Epilogue 1 Orrin ir’Kendag tosses his pack on a stool beside the door as he enters the Drunken Vine. He waves a hand of greeting to Gustav as he finds a comfortable seat in a dark corner as the bartender brings him a glass of wine, leaving the bottle as well. He flips a galifar at Gustav, smiling as the man catches it deftly and slips in into a pocket of his pristine white apron. He sips the beverage, smiling at the familiar taste from home, before he reaches into his belt pouch and extracts a heavy paper letter, bearing an address from the Eldeen Reaches, a town called Havenglen. Cracking it open with an armored thumb, he removes his mailed gauntlets and settles down to read the letter. He pulls out a half dozen pages and begins reading the first. A half hour and half bottle of wine later after several rereads, he has a slightly sappy grin on his face. Gustav calls over to him: “Iz zat from your girl again? When are you going to go and see her?” “She’s coming here, Gustav. To Sharn. She wants to see the city before I accompany her back to Havenglen and settle down. Plan is to spend a couple of weeks touring the city and the facilities, maybe have dinner with her ‘aunt’ in the Red Cloaks before we leave. After that, you’ve seen the last of me, I’m afraid.” Gustav nods, slightly sad. Orrin had been good to him while he’d been here. Several bar fights that could have ended badly had been diffused by the huge Aundairan merely standing and laying a hand on the massive adamantine greatsword that hung by his hip. He wished Orrin and Hazel Featherstar the best in their relationship. Epilogue 2 The tunnels of the Cogs are dim, but Hat Trick’s khoravar eyes easily pierce the gloom as he makes his way to the meeting spot. Hakeshar had told him that if he survived the encounter with his nephew, to head there. He’s stopped by a pair of tough looking humans. One of them is shirtless, a patchwork scar on his pectoral oozing blood. The other looks at him menacingly, bandage soaked with some orange fluid wrapped around his left arm. “I… Hakeshar sent me with a message?” The shirtless man nods at the other, and they pull open the heavy stone doors and allow him access to the interior of the base. There’s only a few dozen people in here, but it’s more aberrants than he’s ever seen in his life. A halfling woman with a glowing crimson evil eye tracks his movement, and her gnomish companion’s left arm has skin that writhes as if alive. Eventually, he gets to a room with a clear view over a pool of lava, much like the Horn of Khyber. A human male stands, hands clasped behind his back, facing away from the door. Traces of red and black are on both of his hands, and Hat Trick begins to feel the sweat dripping from his brow. The man turns, and his breath is taken away. He is wearing a soft white cotton top, unlaced to the bottom of his sternum. His entire body is covered in the bold black and red lines of a powerful aberrant dragonmark. “Speak, brother, and know that your concerns will be addressed.” A smile crosses his lips. “So sayeth the Son of Khyber.” Epilogue 3 Three days later It’s after Mary’s latest lesson. Garash avoids Mik’hael, both eye contact and conversation, as he heads up the roof where Mary’s taken refuge. The men haven’t spoken since their conversation three days earlier. Garash stands awkwardly at the door leading up, waiting for her to invite him over to talk if she’s done her private reflecting. “Yes, I’m done being alone, Garash.” Mary is very careful to keep any hint of a suggestion out of her choice of words. “So, Mary, there’s been something that I’ve been meaning to ask you since…. You know, The Talk with your dad the other day.” Mary nods, tension evident in every line of her body as she sits rigidly on the edge of the roof. “Have you.. ever used your mark on me?” Mary sobs once, nodding her head. “I see.” Anger makes him clench his hands before he takes a deep breath to calm himself. “'When?'” “The… the first day we met. And again… when I asked you out. But never after that, I swear!” “I… this is a lot. This is too much. I… I need to go for a walk.” “Garash!” Mary jumps up, and begins quickly walking towards him as he heads for the edge of the three story house. He looks sadly behind him, pain in his eyes, as he runs the last half dozen feet before vaulting off of the roof, towards the alley behind the house. In a roar of thunder, his form blurs black and red before flickering and disappearing. Mary stops, hand outstretched. She sobs, tears tracing lines down her face as she heads back to her perch on the edge of the roof. Hours pass as she cries quietly into her knees, tucked into her body. It’s full dark outside before she slips back into the house, ignoring her parent’s calls of concern as she locks the door to her bedroom behind her and holds tightly to a silver bracelet with an embedded khybershard. End. Category:Expedition